"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;" Isaiah 61:1 (NASB)

God has been "Flipping my heart" to use a term coined by a RockHarbor youth. He has begun to give me compassion and love for those who are lost and for those that Jesus spent his time with here on earth. He has put me into places and situations which I never envisioned myself in. So that I don't forget the stories I hear, and to allow others to hear God's stories, I am starting this blog.These are my takes on experiences with a ministry that God just brought me to through church, which nurtures relationships with prositutes, drug addicts/dealers, homeless, clubbers, etc in Hollywood.

Much inspiration has come from a Bethany Dillon lyric that stirs my heart each time I hear it: "You sit at the table/with the wounded and the poor; You laugh and share stories/with the thief and the whore/and when you could just be silent and leave us here to die/still you sent Your Son for us, You are on our side."

Friday, April 10, 2009

"I think we're gonna see Frankie tonight", Antquan said as we were nearing Hollywood. "God told me when I was praying today that we'd see him...". With that comment, even missing the rest of what Antquan had to say about it at that moment, for whatever reason, I should've known it was going to be an interesting night.

When we set out after prayer, the first person we talked to was a young 20-something year old guy lingering outside of Donut Time, who asked what we did out there. The conversation led to him saying that he believes in God and Jesus and goes to church every week and knows that it's all about Him; that he'd recently gotten out of a 3-year stint in jail for drug dealing, and that he's back to being a regular user of PCP. Which he told us because he was high at the time and though able to hold a normal conversation, said his mind was "way up here" looking up at the sky. After getting more background on him and why he's back on drugs, etc he became so unfocused and maybe aware of how much he was saying that he said he couldn't handle the conversation anymore because of his high and took off inside Donut Time.

We'd already extended an invitation to him for bible study, so we headed off down the street as other BH-ers stayed inside Donut Time talking to a young crew of gang members. When we got to 7-11, only a few people were there, so Michelle and I headed to get some tea to help us warm up. While I was standing and talking to 'Ravi' inside, Kayla came to the door, saying, "Holly, come here!" I glanced at her and back at 'Ravi', trying to keep listening to him as we were in the middle of conversation. I wasn't about to leave, so she said, "trust me, you want to see this." So I left and followed her out to the donut shop next door. Standing inside was one of our good friends that Kayla, Jen and I had bonded with several months ago, "Alex' (a very pretty transsexual who had moved to Oakland). We had last seen him several months ago as he was struggling with wanting out of prostitution, wanting to pursue his dreams of fashion designing, and frustrated that life never seemed to go well for him.

We both loudly greeted each other in excitement as we hugged. I was completely shocked to see him, thinking he was living out of the area. But I think about him often and had wondered how he'd been. As he pulled out some cash to hand to one of his friends, he thumbed through a pile of bills. "I'm good at what I do" he said with a laugh. Though it killed me to realize he was prostituting again, he told me that he was in fashion school and had brought his drawings to show us.

Just as I was getting to catch up with him and wanting to hear what he'd been up to, Antquan came to the door of Magee's. Just like Kayla, he waved me towards him saying, "come here".

"Um, okay," I said looking back to Alex. "I'll be right back" and walked out towards Antquan. And over near our bible study, there my eyes zeroed in on Frankie. I looked over at Antquan with raised eyebrows and jaw to the floor. Then smiled, realizing God had truly spoken to him during his prayer time. He came over to me as Frankie walked by also, barely acknowleding my "hey!" said in half-excitement, half utter disbelief. "I didn't get to finish telling you the rest of my story, "antquan said quietly. "When I was praying God told me that we would see Frankie, and that he would be using again. I just talked to him, and within the first few minutes of our conversation he let me know that he's using." I still didn't quite know what to do or say. We haven't seen Frankie in about a year and a half, but we've heard he was at a local sober living home, and had often wondered together how he was doing. Frankie was one of the first people i met on the street, one of the closest friends to our whole team, and who I wasn't sure if I'd see again. I can't explain what a shock it was to see him again. And even more so to have Antquan hear so clearly from God and then see it all unfold. Then, to know that Frankie was no longer sober...it was just a lot to process so quickly. And at the same time, I was aware that Alex wanted to talk and I wanted to hear what was going on in his life.

I briefly got to hear how Alex was doing that night, glancing through his sketches and hearing about school, but most of the night, aside from the bible study (which all of the gang members and the PCP guy we'd met before came to) I sat and talked with Frankie and Antquan.

After praying in groups after the service, Krista continued in a conversation with a gang banger who she basically dragged there, and told us later that he responded well.

Antquan and I sat with Frankie who opened up quite a bit about being sober for 16 months, then leaving the program he was in 4 days ago and going right back to meth and prostitution because it's what he knows. But he'd found the environment to have changed a lot (which it has) and wasn't enjoying it. He shared a lot about not trusting people because of his past; not knowing how to handle his current boyfriend who actually treated him well and never expecting good things; not wanting to do meth again, wanting to get into fashion school, etc.

The conversation and night didn't end with anything miraculous, but he said he'd probably see us the next week. And I hoped the same with Alex. Please pray for both of them, as well as us to have wisdom to know how to best reach them and help them get back off the streets.